Panetta orders probe of legal, ethical issues among military leaders

New York Times

Published 10:47 pm, Thursday, November 15, 2012

In the midst of a scandal that has ensnared the NATO commander in Afghanistan, one of the most prominent generals of his generation, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has ordered the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to review ethics training programs for senior officers, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

Panetta directed Gen. Martin Dempsey to determine whether the training programs were adequate and to report back in time for him to send an interim report to President Barack Obama by Dec. 1.

“The fundamental mission of the Department of Defense is to protect the nation,” Panetta said in a memo to Dempsey sent Wednesday.

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“Any behavior that negatively impacts our ability to perform that mission is unacceptable.”

The Pentagon disclosed Panetta's directive Thursday after he arrived in Thailand as part of a visit to Asia.

But aides insisted he had been considering the review for some time and it was not prompted by revelations that the FBI has been investigating former CIA director David Petraeus, a retired Army general, and Marine Gen. John Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

“I will emphasize very strongly that the secretary was going to embark on this course long before the matters that have come to light over the past week,” said Pentagon press secretary George Little.

Pentagon officials said Panetta was not reacting to pressure from the White House and the impetus for the review had come from him.

They insisted that Panetta had planned the review of the ethics programs even before Petraeus resigned as director of the CIA a week ago because of an extramarital affair.

Since then, Allen has come under investigation for what a law enforcement official said Wednesday were a series of sexually explicit emails between him and Jill Kelley, a woman from Tampa, Fla., active in local military circles.

This year, there have in fact been an unusually large number of senior military officers investigated or fired for sexual improprieties, sexual violence, malfeasance or poor judgment.

Gen. William Ward, the former commander of the U.S. Africa Command, was this week ordered to repay the Army $82,000 for misusing government money for travel and lodging, and will be retired at the lower rank of lieutenant general.

Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair, a former deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, is confronting the military equivalent of a grand jury to decide whether he should stand trial on charges of adultery, sexual misconduct and forcible sodomy.

James Johnson, a former commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, was expelled from the Army, fined and reduced in rank to lieutenant colonel from colonel after being convicted of bigamy and fraud.

The Air Force, in the meantime, is struggling to recover from a scandal at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, where six male instructors were charged with crimes that included rape and adultery.

In the Navy, Rear Adm. Charles Gaouette was relieved of command of the Stennis aircraft carrier strike group because of “inappropriate leadership judgment.”

In his memo, Panetta said the Defense Department would continue to hold officers accountable for violations of its standards and rules and that he expected sound judgment as well.

“An action may be legally permissible but neither advisable nor wise,” he said.

Panetta said at a news conference in Bangkok on Thursday that there was no evidence so far that more military officers would get drawn into the scandal enveloping Petraeus and Allen.

Nonetheless, he spoke cautiously.

“I am not aware of any others that could be involved in this issue at the present time,” Panetta said. “Obviously, as this matter continues to be investigated both on Capitol Hill and by the inspector general, I'm sure we'll have to wait and see what additional factors are brought to our attention.”